Old Wounds
by hufflepuff whump medic
Summary: After Skye hurts herself on a solo operation, she hides the injury because she didn't want to be a burden. But that backfires when an infected wound becomes even more of a bother.


"Alright, Director, where do I go from here?" Skye asked through her comm link after dropping out of a ceiling vent.

"There should be a room down that hall… it contains some critical hard-copy files. They aren't in the HYDRA computer system, so that's why you're out here to get them," Coulson replied, "stay alert. Coulson out." Skye quickly made her way to the corridor. This abandoned building was mega-creepy. A sudden screech in her comm startled her, and she stumbled as she reached for her gun, falling on the floor and slicing her forearm open on a rusty nail. She cried out in pain and grabbed her wrist.

"Sorry about that feedback, Skye. Are you in the file room?" Coulson asked on the comm as she frantically looked around for something she could use to stop the bleeding. She spotted a small, filthy rag draped over a chair next to a workbench, and quickly headed over and pressed it firmly to her wound.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm in," she replied, trying to keep her voice steady as she dashed over there, "where is it located?"

"The project was called Andromeda, so I believe under A?" Coulson suggested, "take your time. I'm unsure if anyone is even guarding this place anymore. But just keep an eye out for traps."

"Yeah… yeah… I'll do that…" Skye replied, opening the drawer of the rusty filing cabinet while pressing the rag to her arm. She tried to focus on going through the files, but she could feel the blood quickly soaking through the fabric as her arm throbbed.

_Why am I always getting hurt?_ She thought to herself,_ Simmons is so busy with her science stuff right now. I can't trouble her with this when I get back. _

It was getting harder for Skye to focus as she lost more blood, causing her to feel quite faint. Eventually, she did find the right files. Breathing a sigh of relief, she took them under her uninjured arm, took a deep breath, and said, "Director, I've acquired the files. Returning to HQ."

"Good job, Skye. See you there," Coulson replied.

She looked at her wound and realized that she would need a jacket if she were to hide it from Simmons. Luckily, she spotted an dusty, cobweb-covered olive drab coat just tossed in the corner, so she quickly slipped it on and made her way out of the building.

Yeah, that place was definitely abandoned, she thought to herself as she got into the car, right before she was suddenly hit with a dizzy spell from the blood loss. Gripping the steering wheel, she took in a deep breath, knowing that she had to drive and eventually show up at the bus looking absolutely fine. She looked at herself in the car mirror and hoped some colour would return to her face by the time she got back. Her arm throbbed in a dull pain as she started up the vehicle and made her way to the field where the bus was hidden.

"Here are the plans, Coulson," Skye said as she handed him the grocery bag she stuffed all the files in. Coulson pulled them out and quickly went through them.

"Great job, Skye," he said as he looked up at her, then noticing her pale complexion, asked, "are you feeling okay? Should Simmons look you over?"

"Oh. I'm fine. Why do you ask?" She replied.

"You just look a little pale. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Go and rest, Skye, you seem tired," Coulson sighed, dismissing her from his office. She quickly tiptoed to her quarters, making sure that Simmons wouldn't see her. _She's so sick of me getting hurt all the time,_ Skye thought to herself, _it's not like she's being paid to be the medic. She's a bio-chemist. _

Sitting on her bed, she took off the coat she found at the base and shuddered when she saw the wound, now sticky with half-coagulated blood. Grabbing a bandana off of the shelf, she tied it around her forearm, and put on a hoodie over top. Now, she won't notice a thing! Skye thought to herself.

It was three days later when something went wrong. Skye woke up early in the morning shivering uncontrollably. Her breathing was very fast, making her feel lightheaded, and also felt like she might throw up. "Oh… no…" Skye said to herself in between breaths, "something's… very… wrong…" She started to panic and run to the lab, almost falling over twice, hoping Simmons was there, even though she always felt guilty when she bothered Jemma like that.

"Simmons!" She cried as she accidentally knocked over a tower of beakers Fitz built when he was bored, "I don't know *gasp* what's going *gasp* on! I feel *gasp* so…" right then, the nausea overcame her and she puked all over the floor, then sunk back into the nearest swivel chair, still shivering, feeling very chilled, and hyperventilating to the point where her vision was closing in.

"It's alright, Skye, I'm here," Jemma said as she ran over, kneeling in front of Skye, "I need you to breathe, you're going to make yourself pass out. Just follow my counting, Ok?"

"I *gasp* can't…" Skye whimpered.

"Yes you can, Skye. Ready? Breathe in, two, three, four, now out, two, three four," Jemma steadily instructed as she held Skye's arm and felt her pulse, which was pounding hard and fast. Eventually, her breathing did return to a normal rate, but Jemma quickly took Skye over to the medical bed.

"Skye, what's the matter? Tell me your symptoms," Jemma asked in a softer voice.

"I… don't know. I can't… explain… I… can't think straight…" Skye replied, "I'm… really… cold…"

"Ok. Just lay down. What's this bandanna around your wrist?" Asked Jemma.

"Oh… it's nothing…" Skye replied, but Jemma was already untying it, which caused her to wince. It was very tender compared to yesterday.

"Oh no… what happened?" Jemma asked as she saw the gash, which was now all infected and swollen, "why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I… I didn't want to bother you. I'm always getting hurt, and I just wanted to give you a break… I thought I could take care of it myself…"

"Oh, Skye," sighed Jemma, "if you didn't want to be a burden, you should have gotten it treated right! Stay here. I can fix this."

"I'm really sorry, Simmons. Can I have another blanket? I'm so cold…" said Skye. Jemma quickly threw another blanket over her, then started rummaging through drawers for some supplies. Skye laid back and took some deep breaths to try and get her nausea under control. Feeling very weak, she pulled the blankets up to her chin and laid there on her side, shivering.

"Sit up," said Jemma as she set her medical supplies down, "I need to look at this. How long have you been hiding it?"

"Three days… I guess. I should have gone to you yesterday. I felt a little unwell and feverish, but I didn't think much of it," said Skye as Jemma inspected the wound, "ow, ow, ow… that's really tender…"

"I'm sorry, Skye, I have to clean it up," Jemma apologized as she laid Skye's forearm over a metal bowl, then proceeded to flush it out with water. As she tended to the wound, she also got Skye to hold a thermometer under her tongue and hooked her up to a heart monitor.

"Alright, I've bandaged that quite good. Is that antibiotic still stinging?" Jemma asked, taking the thermometer out of Skye's mouth.

"A little. I'm so cold, Jemma. I can't stop shivering," said Skye.

"You're hypothermic. Stay under those blankets, I'm very concerned…"

"About what? What's wrong?"

"I suspect mild septicaemia. Sepsis. Blood poisoning…" Jemma said in a worried tone as she wrote some things down, "Oh… dear, dear…"

"Wait, what? Blood poisoning? What's happening?" Skye cried. Jemma gently shushed her.

"Don't get yourself worked up. Just lay here and rest, I'll take care of this, okay?" Skye laid her tired, nauseous, shivery self back down and tried not to worry. She heard Jemma rummaging around for things, mumbling to herself out of stress. As Jemma came back over, Skye tried to ask a question but promptly forgot it and slipped out of consciousness.

What seemed like five seconds later, Skye woke up again. She heard Jemma talking to someone else. "Rapid pulse, high white blood cell count, low blood pressure, and she's still not getting warm… sepsis is considered a life-threatening illness in many cases. That's why I'm monitoring her intensively."

"But is she in septic shock?" Asked the worried voice of Melinda May.

"I've been doing all I can to make sure it doesn't progress to that stage," Jemma replied, "she hasn't deteriorated, but she's not improving, either." As Skye woke up a bit more, she realized that she had an IV and breathing tube as well as EKG electrodes all attached to her.

"W-what's going on?" Skye groaned in a weak voice, "Am I gonna be okay?"

"Oh, you're awake. You were out for two hours, I couldn't wake you up. Don't worry, Skye, I'm going to take care of you. Just rest. How are you feeling?" Jemma said in a motherly voice.

"Weak and Tired. And I'm still really cold…"

"Still nauseous?" Simmons asked.

"No…"

"I'll make you some herbal tea. Your body temperature is still low, so we need to use all possible methods of getting warm. Can you breathe alright?" Jemma said. Skye nodded. "Good, good…"

Skye sat up as Jemma handed her the mug, and carefully sipped the hot drink. After setting the cup down on the side table, she laid on the pillow and fell asleep once again. When she woke up, the lights were dim, and she saw Jemma talking to Fitz, who was sitting in a chair looking very tired.

"Skye's going to be alright," Jemma reassured him, "I need you to go to bed. It's almost midnight."

"How come you're staying up? Aren't you exhausted?" Fitz replied.

"I'm the medic, Fitz. I have to monitor her." Skye was about to say something to Fitz, but she was so exhausted and fell asleep once again. A rather long period of dreamless sleep followed. When she finally regained consciousness, she felt quite refreshed and ready to go do something. It's like her sickness was completely gone! She sat up, looked around, and saw Simmons talking to Coulson across the room.

"Simmons! I feel better!" She called across the room. Coulson and Simmons turned around and came over.

"Well, aren't we looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?" Simmons giggled, "That three-day sleep really did wonders for you!"

"I was out for three days? That's crazy," said Skye, "it felt like a few hours." Jemma picked up her clipboard and wrote, _Patient regained consciousness, claims to be feeling better._

"Well, I'll just need to give you one last checkup and have you stay here for a few hours, and then you can get back to work," said Simmons, "I'm glad the antibiotics worked." Jemma proceeded to run a series of tests from temperature to a blood analysis, and once the results came back and the observation hours were up, Skye was free to go.

"I hope you've learned your lesson about coming to me for medical treatment," Simmons called to Skye as she left the lab, "always get it treated right, before you're half dead.

"I sure did! I'll never make that stupid mistake again," Skye replied. She looked at the bandage around her forearm and smiled at the fact that Simmons was able to save her life. As she saw how compassionate Simmons was in nursing her back to health, she realized that maybe she wasn't a burden to her after all.


End file.
